Highway to hall

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Two of next week's hall inductees: Neil and Tim Finn.Photo: Domino Postiglione

There's a special place for Australia's musical icons -
and, no, it's not the local RSL, writes Bernard Zuel.

Who would you have to offend to not make it into the Australian
music industry's Hall Of Fame?

The Australian Football League tied itself in knots for five
years over whether to induct one of the greatest names in the code,
Gary Ablett, into its Hall of Fame. The problem was the so-called
"character test". Arguments raged between those who believed his
off-field behaviour barred him from admission and those who said
his on-field behaviour was all that mattered. He finally got the
nod this year.

If Ablett had played music instead of footy, he'd have been an
immortal already. Next week the Australian Recording Industry
Association, the music industry's peak body, will list six more
household names in its Hall of Fame: the Easybeats, Normie Rowe,
Smoky Dawson, Renee Geyer, Hunters and Collectors and Split
Enz.

For the first time in the hall's 17-year existence, the
induction ceremony will be a stand-alone event with its own
glitter, instead of being a small part of the annual ARIA Awards
night. ARIA hopes this will foster a tradition of respecting and
remembering the past.

You won't hear anyone talking about character tests at this
ceremony. "I think rock'n'roll halls of fame tend to be quite
forgiving in that respect," says Ed St John, chairman of the ARIA
awards and president and chief executive of Warner Music Australia.
"I don't think there's too much behaviour that disqualifies
you."

So what behaviour could rule someone out? "Looking at the people
who have already been inducted, not much," he chuckles. "Dame Joan
Sutherland, she was a wild one. Percy Grainger another."

Percy Grainger's fondness for a spanking aside, there isn't
anyone who would prompt shock-horror headlines in the list of 38
artists or groups who have been inducted since 1988. Alongside
Sutherland and Grainger are the likes of Slim Dusty, the Seekers,
Little River Band, Peter Allen and Olivia Newton-John. Even once
reprobate rockers such as Cold Chisel, Billy Thorpe and AC/DC are
now upstanding members of the music community.

If you didn't know better, you could assume that Australian
music, and its rock/pop end in particular, was a polite, white and
middle-of-the-road community. Is that a coincidence or a deliberate
choice to avoid trouble during the awards broadcasts?

"We're always caught between the honest desire to honour the
really deserving acts but also to give people who are watching the
ARIAs on television a kind of a good, easily grasped, family TV
moment," St John explains. "If we're choosing people to be the one
highlight of a young awards show, there is a tendency to choose
pretty safe, widely known, widely recognised artists. There's a
whole lot of young fresh acts winning awards and it's quite a nice
change of pace to have Olivia [Newton-John] or LRB or [John]
Farnham inducted."

To have a chance of entering the mythical hall for rock/pop,
jazz, country and classical recording artists, you need to have
begun your career at least 20 years earlier, "be responsible for a
significant body of recorded work" and be considered to have had
"either a cultural impact within Australia and/or recognition
within the world marketplace".

The decision is made by the eight-member ARIA board, comprising
representatives from the major record companies. Each year they are
given a list of potential candidates by ARIA's events producer,
Mark Pope. According to St John, self-interest doesn't figure much.
Unlike decisions over which artists will perform at the
high-profile ARIA awards - when there are "robust discussions"
among record companies - the Hall of Fame isn't seen as having any
significant sales value, merely a warm inner glow.

Of course, that warm glow can be palpable to the nominees. Renee
Geyer says she assumed she'd never be included, the obstacles being
gender (sopranos Joan Sutherland and Nellie Melba and Newton-John
and Judith Durham of the Seekers are the only female singers in the
Hall of Fame) and being a Melbourne artist in a Sydney-dominated
industry. A very chuffed Smoky Dawson joked recently that where
once he thought he was on the scrap heap, he now knows he's on the
recycling pile. Dawson began his career before that other country
music icon - Slim Dusty - but has had to wait 17 years to make it
to the Hall of Fame.

There's still plenty of robust discussion outside the ARIA
boardroom about who hasn't been admitted to the hall. For example,
how is it that Australia's first significant rock band, the
Easybeats, have had to wait 17 years to enter the Hall of Fame? And
how does Nick Cave, an artist who has been one of Australia's most
visible and influential exports for 25 years, miss out while fellow
Melburnians Hunters & Collectors make the grade?

St John is keen to stress there is no blackballing of particular
artists.

"I know we had talked about theBirthday Party more than once but
in that particular situation when feelers have been put out, Nick
puts feelers back along the lines of not really believing in awards
shows and not being inclined to turn up," St John says.

It would be silly to expect the ARIA Hall of Fame to be
radically different from the ARIA awards themselves, which
primarily recognise the most mainstream and popular acts. It's "the
nature of the beast", St John says. Maybe there should be
consideration of an annex to the hall for the less famous but
deserving; perhaps the ARIA Garden Shed of Fame (see below). The
hall and shed could fill pretty quickly if newcomers include
"Australian" bands such as Split Enz, who were all New Zealanders,
apart from their drummer for one year, Melbourne's Paul Hester.

One of the criteria for an ARIA award nominee of any sort is
being either an Australian citizen or someone who has lived in
Australia for six months during the eligibility period. "The
reality is, with Split Enz, they were all living in Melbourne and
owned houses for four or five years while they were making
records," St John says.

So does ARIA check residential status and property
ownership?

"Funnily enough, we have asked to see people's passports on a
few occasions. You don't want to penalise successful Australians
who have been living overseas for some time." That wouldn't be fair
to Australians. Or to the 1997 inductees, the Bee Gees, the
British-born brothers who spent only four years of their 42-year
recording career in Australia.

"What you're commenting on," St John says, "is a larger issue
than the ARIAs and the Hall of Fame - Australia's fascinating
ability to claim even the slightest connection if it suits them."
Is there an international hall of fame for that?

The ARIA Hall of Fame ceremony will be held on July 14 and
broadcast on VH1 on July 17.

ARIA Garden Shed of Fame

Some of the artists who should have been admitted to the
hall:

Brian Cadd Influential songwriter here and in the US
through the '70s.

Joy McKean More than Slim Dusty's wife, she is a
songwriter, singer and managerial powerhouse.